How New Urban Principles Can Help Our Communities Thrive
An estimated 15,000 homes sit vacant—one in five units—in Maui County as out-of-state buyers dominate the housing market.
This shocking news, based upon 2020 census data and reported via the Honolulu Civil Beat, underscores the dire nature of the problem at hand. Island kama’aina continue to struggle mightily towards securing housing, all while a multitude of available units sell to the highest bidder, only to go uninhabited—and all the while, the specter of global warming threatens our ability to construct more housing for those who need it the most.
It’s clear that a different approach is necessary to create new, diverse, and eco-friendly neighborhoods for the well-being of all Maui’s citizens—and new urbanism, one of the most influential housing movements of the last few decades, may provide the answer.
New Urbanism and Maui County: A Winning Combination
The New Urbanism movement is an approach rooted in sustainability, working to provide housing that both uplifts the surrounding community and also helps to support the environment with well-designed layouts and construction. Such principles were developed in response to the typical developments seen in the post-World War II construction boom, which often saw low-density housing patterns negatively impacting the social, economic, and environmental health of communities across the country.
New Urban principles look to establish the creation of new and unique housing solutions that make our neighborhoods more walkable, as harmful greenhouse gasses from long-distance transportation have been a major contributor to global warming—an issue that continues to evidence itself all across Hawai’i. Utilizing green building techniques and eco-friendly materials also help to ensure the well-being of the ‘aina, conserving energy and helping to keep housing units naturally cool.
Additionally, infill and smart growth housing is a major component of the new urbanist outlook. Recall from our previous blog that smart growth often entails the development of missing middle housing, or multiple unit housing located within a walkable neighborhood to meet the ongoing needs of the community.
Here on Maui, smart growth and new urbanist housing includes the creation of:
Ohanas: dwellings that are constructed as either a separate or an attached unit on an already-established housing site
Duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes: small-to-medium sized structures made up of two, three, or four dwellings, either next to one another or stacked above and below
Courtyard apartments: medium-to-large structures that are comprised of multiple units around either a single courtyard or multiple courtyards
Bungalows: a set of multiple, detached structures around a shared court that functions as a community backyard or gathering space
Live and work units: a structure consisting of one or more units situated above a ground floor space that can be used as residential, service, or retail space
Conscientious, Environmentally-Sound Housing Can Help to Solve the Housing Crisis on Maui
As the housing crisis deepens across the state—both single-family homes and condominiums set new all-time highs in median sales price in March of this year, while rents have also soared—it’s clear that new solutions are required to alleviate the strain on kama’aina being priced out of their homes. New Urbanism provides a way to create new and sustainable neighborhoods where our fellow citizens can secure their ‘ohana’s future here on Maui, all while working to keep our planet healthy and green.